Politics & Nepali Congress

Nationalism, socialism, democracy. Shadows cast by these towering concepts sheltered Nepali Congress (NC) workers for 50 years as they toiled on the ground. Stretching, swiveling and shrinking, the ideological shade has gradually shifted. Leaders who originally saw coherent programmatic shapes in these conceptual footprints have passed. Even when they were active, party workers had begun to ask: “Do the leaders see what we see?” Then, a sustained challenge by a forceful opponent crystallized this impure wonder into clear doubt. These upstarts had toiled in the sun, and therefore appreciated the shade. They could see reality. In contrast, the NC stood nervously in the shadow of self-built power structures, squinting in the spotlight of blame. Driven to safer regions, and now strangers to toil, the NC had lost its sight.

This blindness can be limiting but favorable. Loss of sight sharpens the remaining senses, especially hearing. A closing of the eyes encourages introspection and meditation becomes easier. Thus the NC is compelled to humbly put its ears to the ground and reflect. The party must discern the voices of those who toil and struggle inside and outside the party. It must relearn to see through their eyes by listening to their voices. Meditating on what it hears, the party will understand what to renounce from its inherited ideology, and then it will know how to reincarnate itself in a revolutionized politics.

Among other things, the NC will hear that it has neglected its politics. Reflecting, it will remember that many who faced this stagnation eventually turned away. They accused the NC, a political animal, of dirtying its own cage. Only a few dependents and caretakers remained. Estranged, those who chose other devotions blamed politics while an increasingly socially aware youth stayed away. And calls grew for development without politics. Many saw correctly that a neglected politics had hampered progress, yet few saw that only a cultivated politics could make progress just. This is the first task for the New Congress: Correct its mistake of alienating a new generation from politics.

Among other things, the Nepali Congress has neglected its politics. Reflecting, it will remember that many who faced this stagnation eventually turned away. They accused the NC, a political animal, of dirtying its own cage. Only a few dependents and caretakers remained.

To do this, the separation of progress and politics must be reversed. When progress becomes politicized, its means have a hope of being just. Without just means, progress itself cannot be justified. When politics is developed, it becomes disciplined and can fulfill its purpose of channeling the development process. This developed politics, stewarded by many, reliably holds society together and keeps development from becoming the weapon of a few elite individuals educated narrowly. It protects those who hunger for justice from the whims of those who have no experience struggling for justice, yet claim intellectual authority to shape a nation’s future.

Many claim that politics is dirty. Many also claim that soil is dirty and mud even dirtier. Yet, without the latter two we would not be able to plant a thing, or grow that which nourishes us. Politics is like soil. There are qualities to it, there are techniques of cultivating it, and there are ways of nourishing ideas through it. Neglected, it stinks. Cultivated, it glows. The roots of ideas that seek to grow must at some point penetrate the soil of politics. Those who seek to champion ideas must ground themselves in the fertile earth of political reality. Politics can become waterlogged, much as soil can. Soil must be tilled and fertilized, much as politics must. We can safely dismiss the idea that the dirtiness that politics is makes it undesirable. The dirt itself is what makes ideas flourish. The question is not whether to cultivate politics, but what sort of political soil the NC will maintain for itself and others.

The NC must take care not to forge a generation that cries out for the fruits of development, yet refuses to work the political soil in which progress is rooted. It must allow politics itself to be disciplined by assimilation into development. Indeed, there is no reason to be biased against politics. It must be embraced, connected to progress, disciplined and mobilized. There is no highway to our future and as a result there is no luxury to be had on our way there. All we have is a dirt path, if even that. Our path consists of and runs through politics. On the long dirt road to freedom from injustice, we will have to get our hands dirty and our feet wet.

And as we sow, so we shall reap. By initiating future generations into the deeply-rewarding task of cultivating politics, the Nepali Congress will nourish good ideas and inspire its workers. Cultivating politics and sowing good ideas are like cultivating soil and sowing seeds. They require hard work, struggle and toil. And this work is essential for the release of a New Congress that seeks political progress, from the ashes of those who have gone before.

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